“Don’t Blink” by Relient K, Sunday, May 2, 2021

 

How is it May 2nd and this is the first time that Relient K has entered this playlist? I think Relient K is one of the most interesting bands in Christian Rock for several reasons. First, they've been around forever. Starting with their hit "My Girlfriend," which played the morality police on a girlfriend who became consumed by Satan via the music of Marylin Manson to the youth group anthem "Sadie Hawkins Dance," the band was a soundtrack to the I Kissed Dating Goodbye chastity and sexism of growing up Christian in the early '00s. Then there was the band's second act: toning down the tongue-in-cheek lyrics and heading to Top 40 radio, joining the likes of Switchfoot, Stacie Orrico, and other Christian acts being in, but certainly not of the scene. But just like Anberlin as we talked about yesterday, Relient K lost favor in the charts, and to a lesser extent, with the Christian scene, with the release of Forget and Not Slow Down, a record swelling with rumors of the lead singer's unfaithfulness to his fiance, radio host Shannon Murphy. FANSD was the most serious Relient K album, and ultimately changed the band, and they were never able to go back to the glory days of youth group pop-punk days that started their career. 

I PLAN TO TAKE THE RIGHTEOUS PATH. Lead singer Matt Thiessen has neither confirmed nor denied the story his ex-fiancé told on her radio show. However, the details that she gave were eerily similar to the details in the lyrics of the album. What did happen was we got a much more secular Relient K following FANSD. Whether it was writing credit on his ex-girlfriend Katy Perry's Teenage Dream rerelease to Relient K releasing the follow-up to FANSD as a series of covers to the questionable lyrics on Collapsible Lung, Relient K was hoping to continue their career in the spotlight. But the critics and listeners HATED Collapsible Lung. The album was musically incoherent, sounding like the album was a compilation of songs written throughout the band's career. Lyrically there was just enough spirituality to seem condescending to non-believers and phony or tacked on to the Christian market. Song talked about casual relationships, which was alienating too much of their core fanbase.  

DON'T BLINK OR IT'S GONE. "Don't Blink" is by far the best song on the album. It was released as a single, so many fans thought that the band was returning to their FANSD sound. However, "Don't Blink" would have done better as a b-side to the band's previous original full-length. However, "Don't Blink" deals with a theme that Matt Thiessen explores in their much better follow-up Air for Free--aging. Happiness seems to be located somewhere in the past. Is this a lament for a lost love, maybe Shannon Murphy or Katie Perry? Is it a longing for the success of their previous work? Is it realizing that you are no longer the punk rock kid singing songs about wishing that girls would just wear mood rings so they would show their emotions? The early 2000s had passed in a blink, and the band was now a completely different group of dudes recording in Nashville, TN on a major label. But it wouldn't last. The nerdy-cool Weezer-listening older brother image of Relient K had become no longer relevant to the 2010s. And that's the fear and the loathing that makes you think about how quickly life passes, in a blink.

Read “Don't Blink” by Relient K on Genius